RV7 Flight to Cottonwood, Idaho

August of 2016, we took a flight to Cottonwood, Idaho.


Cottonwood is located near Grangeville, in Northern Idaho. It's a tiny little town with a population of just under 1000 residents.


Our purpose was to visit St. Gertrude's Monastery. I'd heard about it from time-to-time over the years and was intrigued to see it. The picture above shows the runway at Cottonwood. St. Gertrudes is nestled in the hillside (you can see in the picture), about five miles away as the crow flies.


We pulled our fold-up minibikes out of the luggage compartment and away we went.


It was exclusively uphill. And hot. Pant! Pant! Mike didn't have any trouble with it, but I frequently had to get off my bike and walk. Chivalrous gentleman that Mike is, he also walked--and walked my bike for me.


Eventually, St. Gertrude's was just around the corner.


The grounds were lovely. We even got there in time for prayer. I went inside and experienced the noon liturgy with the residents while Mike visited the museum.


Closeup picture of the main building.

After visiting the monastery, we rode (downhill! yay!) into town and ate lunch at a mom-and-pop style restaurant that served excellent food and was, far as we could tell, the only restaurant in town.

Our lunch was interrupted by a call from our daughter whose baby needed to be life-flighted to Spokane. Daughter needed me to babysit her three other kids while that happened.

Our being needed in this way happened frequently in 2015-2016, due to our granddaughter's numerous disabilities and subsequent death.

We ate quickly, hopped in the plane and flew home. I drove immediately to my daughter's house and she took her sick baby to the hospital.

Cottonwood is a lovely place to visit. The scenery is beautiful and wide open. Montana may boast of being big sky country, but so is much of Idaho.


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